"Bolivia´s Little Eden" - The Town of Coroico

This is the fourth blog entry in less than a week, so if you haven´t already, read about our time at Pica Flor Research Center, our Bolivian border crossing adventures, and our wildlife and community tours near Rurrenabaque!

On the Way to Coroico

We left Rurrenabaque by bus for Coroico on Tuesday, November 28th. In all, the bus ride itself was uneventful, but the trip was not to stay that way... It seems travel is always an adventure in Bolivia!

We knew that the bus would not take us all the way to Coroico, but instead to a little town called Yolosa. A man from the bus company assured us that there would be transportation from Yolosa to Coroico, even though we were to arrive around midnight. Though our bus left on time and there were no unexpected events, we still arrived at "Yolosa" at 2:00am, 2 hours late. When Jeremy and I got off the bus and looked at our surroundings, it became very clear that we were not in a town called Yolosa, rather at a bridge called Yolosa.

There was a control official where we got off, so we asked him how to get to Coroico. He leveled with us to say that there was no transportation from where we were to Coroico, but we could walk uphill for an hour to arrive at Yolosa and an hour to arrive at Coroico. Because we didn´t want to sleep on the ground, we decided to hike it. Thankfully, after we hiked for about 40 minutes, another bus (like the one we were on originally) passed and picked us up to go to the actual town of Yolosa. When we disembarked from this bus, we learned (again) that there was no transportation to Coroico at this time, that we would have to wait 'till morning or hike (uphill again) for more than an hour. Tired, we knocked on the door of the local alojamiento (translation: extremely low-budget accommodation), woke up the owner, and got a room for the night.

The next morning, we were pleased to find that transportation was readily available to Coroico. We waited less than 10 minutes for a bus! The ride was a short 20 minutes, and we arrived in one of the most beautiful places we have visited in South America so far -- Coroico!


Coroico

Though it wasn´t on our original itinerary, many people had recommended that we visit Coroico, just north of La Paz. Coroico is located in a region called The Yungas of Bolivia. Located in a transition area between the lowlands and the highlands where tropical vegetation meets towering mountains, Coroico is nicknamed "Bolivia´s Little Eden". It´s easy to see why. In addition to the amazing scenery surrounding the area, the town itself is a laid-back, clean and quiet town, with tourist-like amenities (good restaurants and accommodations) without feeling touristy (not one person tried to sell us anything). There are nearby Afrobolivian communities which brought some cultural diversity. Plus, the cooler temperatures were a relief from the hot weather we had been experiencing (perfect snuggling weather!). Overall, Coroico seemed like a nice place to settle down for a while. Clearly we were not the first to think this because we saw advertisements from a real estate agency offering opportunities to live in "El Paraiso" or "Paradise".

This album is powered by
BubbleShare
- Add to my blog

Some of the highlights from our time in Coroico included relaxing in hammocks at our hostal, a 3-hour hike to waterfall that afforded amazing views of the area, and creating new shadow puppets with our hands late at night. We also had some wonderful food including a banana chocolate crepe (yum!) and bitter hot chocolate with chocolate chunks and many tablespoons of sugar. And one morning, Jeremy awoke early to find the clouds just parting from the covered mountains. He said it was gorgeous!


After Coroico, Jeremy and I headed to La Paz (where we are right now). More on that in our next blog entry!